Disney's 'Moana' wins box office for third straight weekend

The latest Disney animated movie, “Moana,” continues to dominate the domestic box office as it took in an estimated $18.8 million to top sales for a third consecutive weekend, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

That was enough to beat out new release, Paramount’s comedy “Office Christmas Party,” which came in second with $17.5 million.

“Moana,” which stars Dwayne Johnson and features the music of “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, has now earned $238.8 million globally.

It was another easy win for “Moana” as the movie hasn’t had much competition since it opened over the Thanksgiving weekend. Because of the lack of big titles over this weekend many audiences flocked to the art houses to see the limited release of Oscar contender “La La Land,” which took in $855,000 on five screens. It had $171,00 per-screen, the second-highest all-time, beating out Wes Anderson’s “Grand Budapest Hotel” (which took in $811,000 in 2014).

Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone give Oscar-worthy performances in “La La Land,” a modern day love story told through a musical. The movie expands December 16 and plays nationwide Christmas Day.

“Moana” is the latest example of Disney’s dominance this year, but the studio has saved likely its best performer for its final release of the year.

Next weekend “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” the first ever “Star Wars” standalone movie, will open and projections of the movie have it earning between $280 million-$350 million in its first five days in theatres.

Domestically, it would mark the fourth consecutive weekend a Disney title was number one at the box office, and it’s likely Disney would own the box office the last two weekends of 2016 as “Rogue One” looks to dominate the rest of the year.